


Washed under the red light

by koalaoshiz



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Fluff, M/M, Nightmares, Shiro is a treasure and I'm glad we have him, boyfriends being adorable, loss of limb, mention of the others - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-13
Updated: 2019-02-13
Packaged: 2019-10-27 10:29:37
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,938
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17765084
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/koalaoshiz/pseuds/koalaoshiz
Summary: Sometimes dreams bring back bad memories. Having someone by your side makes it better.





	Washed under the red light

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Alexa-writes](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts?recipient=Alexa-writes).



> For Alexa!! Cheers, luv ;*

He's laying on the floor when he get his consciousness again, eyesight swimming and ears ringing. Blazing red light going on and off all around him making what he could see of the ceiling something akin to a fiery nightmare. Red was also seemingly coating the inside of what was left of his visor and a sharp pain over his left eye told him how it got there. Shards of not glass but also not plexiglass was embedded in his skin and eerily he knew he should be worried about that.

Except he only felt a dullness and no strength in his body to get up and get out of here. He could only breath raspily and blink, trying to adjust his vision. It wasn’t pleasing to see the red lights flooding the purple ceiling by intermittence and he wanted to close his eyes so only darkness could be seen. That would dull the ache he felt in his entire body and quiet the tiny gremlin hammering down in his head. Banging left and right with a vigor that made him nauseous.

That was dangerous. The ringing in his ears was replaced by muffled screaming, strangely louder in his left ear. It made Lance frown because who could be screaming? He was supposed to be the only one in this section of the ship, the others taking on their own missions. Was he having some strange auditory hallucinations? Come to think of it, why was he on the floor? Why did it hurt to shift only slightly and why was he feeling so cold?

Dull pain in his throat informed him he talked out loud even thought he couldn’t quite hear himself. Did he scream, enough for his throat to feel like glass shards were rubbing inside of it? What had happened for him to do that? He couldn’t recall a thing. Didn’t know if he would like to do so anyway. 

He could hear a pause in the yelling though and he stopped breathing in hope to hear it again. He couldn’t hear anything else so if there wasn’t even those background noises, so close to his ears then he would have no choice but to panic. If there was no noise then it meant he was all alone and he couldn’t deal with that right now. 

Grunting, he tried to get ahold of himself and shift into a more suitable position when a sharp pain made him cry out. His left leg didn’t feel right as if there was some kind of lag between him thinking to move it and for it to actually move. Except it was too busy ignoring his orders, preferring hurting like a bitch instead.

He was cold. That was worrisome. Why was he so cold? The suit should provide him with a regulated body warmth, Coran assured him of that. That was why they could go outside in the dead of space without fearing any harm. Because the suit, despite lookinde deceptively thin and fragile was made from a material that was extremely resistant. Added the obvious electronics inside and you had a reliable armor that allowed to share his vitals to the Castle directly. 

Gut twisting, he gritted his teeth, twisting his body to raise his upper body. His arm nearly slipped, the floor humid under him. There wasn’t any waterway burst thought. So why…

His leg wasn't there anymore. It wasn't there… there was nothing below his knee but a pool of blood, slowly growing more and more as his heart skipped a bit. It… it hurt.

Now that his brain acknowledged his missing leg the stumo began to hurt, making him cry out. Tears streaming down his cheeks, he yelled and yelled and yelled with his broken up voice, white noise flooding his senses if it wasn't for the pure agony. Red was everywhere he looked. On his armor, on the walls, in his eyesight. It was as it tried to wash everything in its color, make everything one smooth blend of pain.

_Someone was calling out to him. The voice was muffled but persistent. A hand - warm, large - was rubbing his back gently._

Where was his leg, where was it? If he could find it it wouldn't hurt anymore. He had to find it. Even crawling on his belly would help. He… he needed his leg. He needed it, he needed it he needed it he needed it! Please please please please let him find his leg he needed it if he had it it would stop hurting it hurt so much it hurt it hurt please please please - 

_“lance!”_

He woke up with a start, heart caught in his throat. Sweat was running down his lower back and was cooling down, making him shiver violently. His breath was shaky and irregular, on the verge of hyperventilation. On his left, a voice was murmuring soft words to him, the warm hand still rubbing his back. His vision was swimming but nothing red was flashing anymore, there was just the cold presence of the Altean lighting. His leg hurt, still. Oh god did it hurt. 

“Hey, do you hear me now?” Shiro’s soft voice made him jump, curling away from the big presence beside him. He regretted it now because it made him colder than before. Whimpering, he threw his hands toward Shiro, grabbing him with a frenzy fueled by fear.

“Did you dream of it again?” 

Lance closed his eyes as tears pin pricked him, gathering at the corners. He nodded slowly, giving himself time to breathe and think it all through. It had been nightmare, right. Just a recreation of that awful awful day made by his mind because apparently he didn’t suffered enough.

“It hurt…” he whispered, afraid of talking too loudly in case the blaring red light came back again. 

“I know, baby.” Shiro kissed him on the top of his head, wrapping his arms around him so they were pressed together with no space between them. Shiro knew that Lance wouldn’t be able to bear having him on top of him like a heavy blanket so he was resigning himself for just full body contact. “I hate to say that but you’ll get used to it.”

“It was right there.” Lance whimpered again, hands clutching against Shiro’s sleep shirt. “My leg was just there and I couldn’t… You took me away before I could put it back...”

“It wouldn’t have been possible even if we got you to the healing pods immediately, kitten.” Shiro sighed, hand still rubbing Lance’s back. That had been a sad recurrence whenever Lance just woke from a nightmare. Him frantically pleading to get back his missing limb was breaking Shiro’s heart but there had been nothing they could have done.

During this mission, when there had suddenly been a radio silence from Lance, everyone had panicked, especially when they had heard the rumbling of an explosion not long before; actually running to his position and seeing the pool of blood under him and Lance trying to crawl while pushing his severed leg in front of him and mumbling incoherently had been a traumatizing sigh, especially for Pidge and Hunk. The yellow Paladin had been unable to resist the urge to vomit and the whole ordeal had left Pidge shaking and unable to think for a few minutes.

Shiro and Keith had been the ones to stay focused in the situation, even if both of them really wanted to let the shock wipe them on the spot (Keith had closed himself off for most of the two weeks Lance had been inside of the healing pod and even now and then he would just go back to his room to wallow in guilt.) but they had to take Lance back to safety, to be healed and get out of the Galra ship. 

Lance had been far too weak to protest being hauled in Shiro’s arm without ceremony and his pathetic attempt to have them stop to get his leg had hurt Shiro more than he let out. Making a tourniquet for the wound had been left to Keith as Shiro led them to safety inside of Black, Pidge and Hunk following him closely as had Blue and Red, both steaming from worry. 

(two weeks inside of the healing pod and quite not enough time to process that along with his leg missing, he had a severe hearing loss in his right ear. Pidge latched onto that, projecting to make him the best hearing aid in the galaxy while Hunk and Coran were busying themselves in making a new leg for Lance.)

After he got out of the healing pod, it had been another few days of denial and nights filled with the both of them cuddling in hope of making Lance’s loss of limb less painful. Bless the alteans for their forte in prosthetics even if Allura had been slightly tactless about it. Alteans dealt with this subject in a more understanding fashion and they had less encounters with phantom pains. Shiro still dealt with it on his own but having had his arm cut and replaced in such short of time and without real time to process it meant his brain was considering the galra limb like its own.

Lance didn’t have that little blessing. 

“I need it.” Lance sobbed, shivers racking his body, Shiro tugging him closer to his body and whispering words of encouragement to him. It was still painful to see his love in such a state.

It stopped a dozen minutes later as Lance was finally fresh out of tears and more aware of his surroundings. More aware he had experienced yet again a very vivid dream and was reminded of how painful it had been.

“I know.” Shiro said, carefully passing his hand in lance’s brown locks, seeing as his dark blue eyes rose to meet his own, tears stuck on his eyelashes. Shiro bend down to kiss them off and he was grateful to hear his blue boy giggle at that. Good. He hated to see him cry.

“But you are alive, Lance. Sure you have a leg that is a wonderful work of engineering thanks to Hunk and Coran but all I am grateful for is that you are alive.”

“You’re a sap.” Lance said softly, hands rubbing his eyes to get rid of the last of the tears.

“Maybe, but I am _your_ sap.” Shiro laughed, kissing Lance once more, in short and butterfly like fashion. 

“Nooo, it tickles!” Lance giggled, trying to push Shiro off of him. To no avail because Shiro wasn’t letting go. Not for all the gold in the universe.

“You won’t be able to unstick me! It’s over, you’ve lost because I love you!” Shiro roared as he began to tickle his boyfriend. Lance shrieked, trying to protect his sensible flanks but there was nothing he could do but yield and laughing it out, blowing raspberries in Shiro’s neck in retaliation. 

Somehow it turned into a more relaxed atmosphere, both of them cuddling and sharing their body warmth. Lance was so grateful to have shiro in his life, to have him by his side. Not only to bring him back from bad memories (he did the same thing for when Shiro had his own nightmares) but also to share those precious, calmer moments. 

And frankly, leg or not, he wouldn’t change it for anything in the world. He was Shiro’s and Shiro was his. Nothing would be able to take them apart. 

Lance smiled before kissing him softly.

“You’re right, Shiro You _are_ my sap.”


End file.
